Just Watched

Becoming a Tour de France champ

Just Watched

How has cycling recovered?

Cavendish, who finished third following the incident, maintained his innocence after missing out on a 25th stage win.

"The commissaires are already putting the blame on me," he told reporters.

"You can see he (Veelers) moves a little bit right, I move a little bit left, it's not like I took his wheel, I'm following the road."

Cavendish also took to Twitter to defend his actions, tweeting: "Just seen the sprint. I believe I didn't move line. I'm actually coming past Veelers and we touch elbows when he moves. Anyway, hope he's OK.

"There's no way I'd move on a rider deliberately, especially one not contesting a sprint. I hope Tom's OK."

Winner Kittel, who is the first man to win two stages during this edition of the Tour, escaped the crash as the sprinters went full pelt for the line.

"I'm really happy to have won but the victory is tempered a bit by the crash. I hope Tom isn't too injured," he told reporters.

"Apparently Cavendish bumped into Tom and he lost control of his handlebars and crashed.

"I cannot imagine that Cavendish did that on purpose, it just happens sometimes in a hectic finale. Every sprinter wants to come to the front when he comes to the line and I hope that he's OK.

"You can see that Cavendish really bumped into the handlebar of Tom but it doesn't look like he does it on purpose. Tom swings off to the right and Cavendish to the left - and it's just very unlucky at that moment."